Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Suzuka

Image source, Getty Images

Daniel Ricciardo on Thursday was still enjoying the winning feeling from Malaysia last Sunday, but he says that from Friday morning “I will reset and start from the beginning - a new weekend.” The long victory drought since the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix was beginning to annoy him, but now, he said, “it feels like everything was worth it”. He added: “It doesn’t change my self-belief and my level of confidence is at a good level. It is where it needs to be, I am happy with that. Obviously you don’t want it to go too crazy, I think it will have a reverse effect and then you start becoming a bit too complacent and things like this. The win felt good, and I felt like it was in a way a bit of a relief but for confidence and that, it has been at a solid level for quite a while now. I will maintain that. It has worked for me, IIt won’t alter my approach into this weekend. It feels nice to walk into the paddock as a winner, but once the helmet goes on tomorrow it is back to business.”

Image source, EPA

After Lewis Hamilton said the fans should be the ones asking questions of the drivers, and not journalists who are PAID TO DO IT, we thought we'd put you to the test. 

If you had a question for an F1 driver, what would it be? Keep them coming via #bbcf1

Dan Blight: If you could take one button off your steering wheel which would you choose, and why?

Anthony Hocken: Q to Lewis, have you calculated the odds of all the engine failures happening to the same driver, given there's 8 Merc-powered cars?

Larusso: What's the one F1 car you'd like to sample from any time/era if you could and why? To any driver

I should mention that live commentary of this session is available on Radio 5 live Sports Extra, with Jack Nicholls and Tom Clarkson manning the mikes.

They've been chatting about past Japanese F1 drivers. Some great names in there - Katayama, Inoue, Nakajima, Kobayashi, Sato, Suzuki. 

I don't think Shinji Nakano got a mention so I'll do it here. 

He drove for Prost and Minardi in 1997 and 1998 and was, I think, a lot better than he was given credit for. He scored points for two sixths at Canada and Hungary in 97 - i.e proper points, none of this 10th-place nonsense.

Image source, Getty Images

We're just starting to get a little bit of meat on the bones of this leaderboard. 

The Mercs - on the soft tyre - are on their customary perch above the rest, Rosberg shading Hamilton for now by a couple of tenths.

Image source, Formula 1

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Suzuka

Fernando Alonso will, as planned, race this weekend the new specification Honda engine that he tested in Malaysia. Honda did not find anything untoward in the engine when they checked it so are happy to proceed. The team say there is no outright performance gain with the lighter engine block and revised exhaust but it should enable them to run it in certain higher-power modes for longer. “Actually it’s just an engine that we fitted in Malaysia just for reliability issues more than performance,” Alonso said. “Also, we didn’t have engines to finish the season, so we chose Malaysia to fit new engines, to pay the penalty and then have the rest of the races without any more concerns. We plan to use that engine here but, as I said, the engine has exactly the same power, so we will fit the engine and we will try to do our best.” 

Jenson Button has the new exhaust but not the new block - that will probably be at the next race in Austin for him - but he admitted any disadvantage he may have would only be in the fact his unit was a little older than his team-mate’s.

Fernando Alonso has a moment on the entry to Spoon, spinning his McLaren backwards into the barriers. 

The Spaniard has a reasonable thunk with the wall and loosens his rear wing. 

He's off back to the pit.

All very low key on the track with around 15 minutes gone. 

All the drivers have set an installation lap but only time is on the board - Sergio Perez's Force India in 1:34.956.

Image source, Getty Images

So, after his grumbles about his fragile Mercedes power units last weekend, Lewis Hamilton wasted no time grabbing the headlines in Suzuka.

Setting aside his mid-news-conference SnapChat carry-on (as demonstrated by Carlos Sainz below), the Mercedes driver also claimed that fans should be the ones to ask questions of the drivers, not the media. 

So our question for today is very simple: If you had one question for any F1 driver what would it be?

Get in touch via #bbcf1

My first coffee of the morning has just been brought to me by one of my minions. 

No, not this guy.

Image source, Getty Images

First free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix is off and running.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Suzuka

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton was in one of the ‘moods’ he can sometimes be in on Thursday - the ones where he decides he basically does not want to say anything in a major news conference. Instead, he busied himself posting pictures of himself and Carlos Sainz Jr doctored with rabbit’s features, saying being in the news conference was “killing me”. Asked what he was doing, he said: “Just some snaps of us drivers, it’s quite funny. That’s about it. Hey man, we’ve been doing this a long, long time and it’s the same each time so got to keep adding new things to it.” Later, taking to another social platform to say he meant it to be “fun not disrespectful”. 

Anyway, he is ever a man to himself - and one who shows himself, for which we should be grateful. And don’t believe for a second the frivolousness will extend to his in-car work. He told BBC Sport he would try to “take the positives” from his damaging Malaysia weekend - and especially in terms of carrying his pace there over into Japan, where he has won the last two seasons, although both times from second on the grid.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Suzuka

It’s a beautiful day in eastern Honshu - so far. It’s warm and sunny. There are a few clouds about, but Suzuka looks at its glorious best, Ise Bay and the Philippine Sea glinting in the sunlight in the distance. Tonight, though, heavy rain is expected and it looks like it could well affect qualifying and perhaps the race. So the teams will want to get on with things. And the drivers? Well, to a man they - as Lewis Hamilton put it - “can’t wait” to get out on to a track many of them consider the best in the world.

Good morning and welcome to live coverage of first free practice for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix at the wonderful Suzuka cicuit. 

If you have just got up - or indeed have stayed up - then well done for that and thanks for your company. 

There will be hats.

Image source, Getty Images